My week with Bucky Fuller
October 12, 2008 by Bill
The current issue of the SANTA BARBARA magazine (Oct/Nov) has a wonderful article on Buckminster Fuller and his relationship to Santa Barbara. The article triggered many fond memories of one of the most significant weeks of my life.
The year was 1979. I was teaching at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA., the Dept of Religion and Philosophy. At the same time I was the minister of the First Congregational Church in downtown Tacoma. It was Monday, Wednesday and Fri at the University. Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at the church.
One day at the University, in the weekly staff meeting, I said to them, “Why don’t we do something exciting and invite in, for one week, one of the most original and creative thinkers in the world…whose writings on religion are breathtaking as well as on many other subjects…Buckminster Fuller?”
There was dead silence, and then they literally laughed at me. “Are you joking? Why we could never afford his fee,” they said.
Following this typical academic rigidity and creative apathy, I went home and picked up the phone and called Fuller’s office in Philadelphia. I explained to the secretary who I was and what I wanted and what I had in mind for Fuller for one week. And, she said, “well, he is here. You talk to him”.
How much is enough?
October 5, 2008 by Bill
My wife and I were guests at dinner in the main dining room of an exclusive, gated, private community. After a short time the woman sitting next to me blurted out…”My God…you don’t know how great it is to see a new face…hear a new voice…with new stories and new ideas.” On the drive home I wondered if any of these people had ever asked the question that Peggy Lee asked in her memorable song…”Is That All There Is?” Had they ever paused long enough to question the significance, or lack of it, of their daily lives.
How much is enough?
How many cocktail and dinner parties are enough…with the same people…same jokes…same stories…same trivia…same cliches…same gossip…same boredom. Have they realized that the rut they are in has evolved into a trench?
The distinguished actor, Anthony Hopkins, put it bluntly in a recent interview. “My wife and I stopped going to cocktail or dinner parties years ago. We got sick of the phony…”hello daaaaaaarling” how good to seeeee you. “It made us gag.” Hopkins went on to use such strong language to express his disgust that I cannot print it for a family newspaper”.
How much is enough?
